Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to methods and systems for providing presence information for a principal and more particularly to providing presence information for a principal without a presence or other user agent.
Today various multimedia networks allow users, through user agents on various devices, to publish their presence information. Presence is defined here, and conventionally defined, as a transient state of a principal that can be used by other entities to make a decision about how to best communicate with the principal. A principal can be defined as an entity that has an identity, that is capable of providing consent and other data, and to which authenticated actions are done on its behalf. Presence information for a principal can be obtained by another entity using a subscribe/publish model wherein a principal publishes its presence to a presence server which in turn notifies authorized subscribers of the information or change of information. Additionally or alternatively, presence information can be obtained by interrogating or querying the presence server.
However, current approaches to providing and/or obtaining presence information for a principal require participation in an IM or multimedia messaging network or a presence network (or set of presence networks) with a presence server/enabler or presence aggregation. Further, devices participating in such networks need to include appropriate user agents or applications playing the role of user agents, i.e., a Presence Network Agent (PNA). These current approaches do not address or provide an ability to query presence information without being part of the presence network or without the appropriate application or presence agent. Hence, there is a need for improved methods and systems for providing presence information for a principal.